10. Name: Qassification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States. 



Authors: Lewis M. Cowardin, Virginia Carter, Francis Golet, and Edward LaRoe. 



Reference: Cowardin L.M., V. Carter, F. Golet, and E. LaRoe. 1979. Qassification of 

 wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States, 1979. U.S. Department of the hiterior. 

 Fish and WUdlife Service. FWS/OBS-79/31. Washington, DC. 103 pp. 



Objectives: The classification is designed for use in a new inventory of wetlands and 

 deepwater habitats and is intended to describe ecological taxa, arrange them in a system 

 useful to resource managers, furnish units for mapping, and provide uniformity of concepts 

 and terms. The system provides hierarchical levels from the broadest (marine, estuarine, 

 riverine, lacustrine, palustrine) to the lowest level, dominance type, which is named for the 

 dominant plant or animal form of the area. 



Designed Users: Land managers and biologists. 



Area of Applicability: United States (although system could be used anywhere). 



Classification Units, Description, and Data: 



Classification Units Description 



System Basic water source/feature (marine, estuarine, riverine, etc.). 



Subsystem Basic water persistence attributes (subtidal, intertidal, lower 



perennial, upper perermial, etc.). 



Class Gross substrateA^egetation form (rock bottom, aquatic bed, 



emergent wetland, rocky shore, forested, etc.). 



Subclass Specific substrateA'egetation type (bedrock, sand, mud, 



needle-leaved evergreen, broad-leaved deciduous, etc.). 



Dominance Dominant plant/animal species (horsetail, black cottonwood, 



willow, caddisfly, crayfish). 



Modifiers Site specific attributes of soil, regime, water chemistry, and 



land alteration (salinity, pH, flooding condition, mineral or 

 organic, farmed, diked, etc.). 



Use, Testing, Validation: This system is currently in use by many agencies for the general 

 inventory and classification of habitats. It has been used in small and large applications. 

 Products from the classification can give the manager a good overview of the resource. 



Ease of Application: The system is easy to apply and particularly useful with aerial photo- 

 graphs. The system becomes more complex as modifiers are added to the description, as with 

 specific hydrology and water chemistry. 



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